Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "AFRIN Town SYRIA" .
Cyrrhus. A titular see of Syria. The city of the same name was the capital of
the extensive district of Cyrrhestica, between the plain of Antioch and Commagene.
The origin of the city is unknown; according to a false tradition, it was said
in the sixth century to have been founded by Cyrus, King of Persia; this, however,
was only a play upon the name. It became at an early date a suffragan of Hierapolis
in Provincia Euphratensis. Eight bishops are known before 536 (Lequien, II, 929;
E.W. Brooks, The Sixth Book of the Select Letters of Severus, II, 341). The first
was present at Nicaea in 325. The most celebrated is Theodoret (423-58), a prolific
writer, well known for his role in the history of Nestorianism and Eutychianism.
(His works are in Migne, P.G., LXXX-LXXXIV). He tells us that his small diocese
(about forty miles square) contained 800 churches, which supposes a very dense
population.
At Cyrrhus a magnificent basilica held the relics of SS. Cosmas and
Damian, who had suffered martyrdom in the vicinity about 283, and whose bodies
had been transported to the city, whence it was also called Hagioupolis. Many
holy personages, moreover, chiefly hermits, had been or were then living in this
territory, among them SS. Acepsimas, Zeumatius, Zebinas, Polychronius, Maron (the
famous patron of the Maronite Church), Eusebius, Thalassius, Maris, James the
Wonder-worker, and others. Theodoret devoted an entire work to the illustration
of their virtues and miracles. The city was embellished and fortified by Justinian.
At the same time it became an independent metropolis, subject directly to Antioch.
The patriarch, Michael the Syrian, names thirteen Jacobite bishops of Cyrrhus
from the ninth to the eleventh century (Revue de l'Orient chretien, 1901, p. 194).
Only two Latin titulars are quoted by Lequien (III, 1195). The site of the city
is marked by the ruins at Khoros, nine miles northwest of Kilis, in the vilayet
of Aleppo; these ruins stand near the river Afrin Marsyas, a tributary of the
Orontes, which had been banked up by the aforesaid Theodoret.
S. Vailhe, ed.
Transcribed by: Anthony J. Stokes
This text is cited Sep 2005 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
Kyrrhos. Town founded by the Macedonians, 70 km N-NW of Aleppo, an important
strategic position at the beginning of the Hellenistic period and later under
Roman rule. It was sacked by the Sasanians in A.D. 256. In the 5th c. it experienced
a brief renascence as a center of pilgrimage under its bishop Theodoretus. In
the 6th c. Justinian fortified and adorned the town, and in A.D. 637 it yielded
to the Moslems.
It is at a bend of a tributary to the Afrin, not far from their confluence.
It forms a rough triangle, from the acropolis to the W to the high cliff above
the river to the E. Bridges, ramparts, a great avenue, Christian sanctuaries,
a theater, and a mausoleum are the principal ancient remains.
The Byzantine bridges are still in use S of the town: they cross first
the Afrin, then its tributary. To the N the bridge over the river is in ruins,
but the ancient road is visible beyond it.
The ramparts have square or semicircular towers and date from the
Byzantine period. An inscription on a gate of the citadel gives the names of Justinian,
Theodora, Belisarius, and the domestikos Eustathius. The vast enclosure is of
Hellenistic date, as are the polygonal blocks preserved in various sectors. The
acropolis was roughly rectangular, with a gate to the outside and a gate to the
lower town. The lower town itself had three gates, to the N, S, and E.
The orthogonal street plan dates from Hellenistic times; the main
axis is a wide street from the S to the N gate, bordered by porticos. A spacious
rectangular enclosure has the ramparts to the W, and on its S and E sides two
monumental gates flanked by rectangular towers; two other towers stand at the
corners of the E side, parallel to the great avenue. Inside this space (once mistaken
for an agora) was a church with three naves and a narthex to the W; it has ancient
fluted columns and is built of materials of many colors. To the NE of this sanctuary
and E of the colonnade are the remains of a large Christian basilica with several
apses.
The theater is ca. 60 m from the avenue; it backs against the hill
of the acropolis and faces E. Only the 24 rows of the lower tier of seats survive;
the upper tier has disappeared. There are seats with backs in front of the diazoma,
and those next to the radial staircases have elbow rests in the form of dolphins.
The scaenae frons had five doors, opening onto alternately rectangular and semicircular
exedras. The theater reveals the influence of Antioch and Daphne and may date
to the middle of the 2d c. A.D.
The best-preserved necropolis is to the NW. A large hexagonal mausoleum,
reused as a Moslem sanctuary, has pilasters at the corners of the ground floor.
It is crowned with an entablature, decorated with lions' heads, that supports
a skylight with windows which have archivolts and Corinthian pilasters. The skylight
is capped by a slender pyramid, with a capital adorned with acanthus leaves at
the top. The capital is big enough to carry a statue.
J. P. Rey-Coquais, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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